My Advice for High School Juniors

Somehow summer has flown by once again and it’s already August, which means it’s time for Back to School posts! Back to School posts are always some of my favorite posts to write, I love sharing advice and inspiration for a fresh start in the new school year! Read my Back to School posts from years past here. Each year I write something along the lines of “My Advice for…” or “10 Things I Wish I Knew Before…” in regards to the grade I just completed, and today I’m sharing my advice for high school juniors! It’s no secret that junior year is one of the hardest, and today I’m sharing some things that will hopefully help you out in this intimidating year! I also have a post called “10 Habits of a Successful High School Junior” scheduled for August 22nd so if you’re a junior and think you could use all the wisdom you can get be sure to come back! Without further adieu, let’s get into the post!

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Go into the school year with a positive mindset. – I’m sure you’ve heard the most terrible horror stories about junior year, but like the wise Hannah Montana once sang, “life is what you make it.” If you go into junior year dreading it and assuming it’s as bad as people say, you’re going to get off on the wrong foot with your teachers, then it might actually be the worst. It’s all about perspective! This year is important and will be challenging but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be all that bad.

Know that your identity isn’t in your grades. – While junior year isn’t necessarily the worst, there’s a good chance that you’ll create a pretty overwhelming schedule for yourself between academic courses you believe your college of choice will notice and extracurriculars both that you want said college to see and that you’re genuinely interested in. The times that I noticed myself and friends truly drowning in the stresses and struggles of the year were the times in which we found our identities solely in our academics. If you forget that the best part about you is that your being is a collage of great qualities and interests and you begin to find your worth completely dependent on your GPA or AP U.S. History grade, your self esteem and happiness will fluctuate with the numbers.

Actually do your homework. – Whether you’ve done it every single night of your school career so far or rarely open a textbook at home, this is the year to make sure you’re doing your homework. Homework is often the only assignment you can guarantee a good grade on and no matter how little the grade counts, every little decimal point contributes to your average so it’s important that it’s always the best grade it can be. Even if your teachers don’t check homework, it’s always important to do the assignments because homework is where you find out if you really know the material or not and from there you can ask for help with specific topics.

Remember that boys are not everything. – For whatever reason, I feel like a lot of girls’ desperation for attention from guys rises dramatically junior year. Maybe it’s the need for a distraction from all the AP work or validation somewhere else when the academics get tougher. There’s obviously nothing wrong with having a boyfriend and I can’t tell you how to live your romantic life, but please remember that boys are not everything and you aren’t defined by any guy’s opinion of you.

Surround yourself with people you actually want to be like. – This piece of advice goes for all of high school and even all of life. It’s so important to remember that whether you like it or not, the people you hang around are going to contribute to your character and personal behavior. This could be as simple as picking up some odd phrases they use or as significant as beginning illegal drug use. To stay safe, make sure the people you spend the most time around are people you’d like to be like! Over the past year or so I’ve begun to hang out with girls who’s character I genuinely like because I know if they rub off on me I’d be pretty happy about it.

Thanks for reading, I hope you found this advice helpful! Have an awesome junior year, I’m praying for you!

[…] This is my third post in this year’s Back to School series, so if you’d like to read “My Advice for High School Juniors”, “Back to School Lookbook 2018”, or my other Back to School posts from years past, you […]